when my kids were younger and I still did ALL the laundry I would set out each childs clothes basket and as the clothes came out of the dryer they were sorted into the appropriate basket -- then get folded to be put away. Now that the kids are grown and gone or doing their own I only have to deal with hubby's and mine. I put up a hanging rack in the laundry room. When I take the basket of clothes from the bedroom to the laundry room, I gather up all the empty hangers from the closet and take them with. Everything gets hung up as it comes out of the dryer - with the exception of his work T's, our socks and under things - they all get put in dresser drawers. It sure makes it go faster - and no wrinkles. The towels are a different story. I hate folding towels!

I don't mind folding towels. It's fast.

Originally Posted by tomi

First on the "honey do" list........... Fix that closet rod!

Have you met my husband?? First on his list is the race car!!! I'll end up fixing the rod when I get to that point.

Originally Posted by tomi

Purging is an absolute necessity when kids are growing! If they have so many toys that the house is cluttered with them - then they have too many toys! Same goes for the clothes. Keep a box in the laundry room or garage if its close to the laundry. If an item is damaged it goes in the trash, or too small it goes in the box. When the box is full it goes in a bag to be taken to charity. Put the bag in the car and stop at the charity drop site on the way to work or home.

Goodwill is NOT on my way to or from home/work. I would kill 30 minutes easily just going to and from. Goodwill is typically a Saturday job. But I get your point.

Originally Posted by tomi

It takes 2 minutes to sort mail and a daily basis. Junk mail goes in the recycle bin (if your area has that) or, keep the shredder in a handy place --- shred it as soon as it comes into the house. You can also notify the post office that you don't want ANY 3rd class mail. Nothing that isn't specifically addressed to you. No more "current occupant" junk mail will come to you.

I didn't know I could make such a request. Conveniently, our post office used to have garbage cans for people to place anything they didn't want. Then the budget cuts came through and they stopped offering "trash collection". They must have gotten tired of the less-than-considerate people who left their mail on the table anyway, b/c they recently placed a recycle bin. No junk mail makes it to our house...

When I get home at night, it's usually really close to 6 pm, so it's more important to get dinner started and on the table than it is to sort the mail. I have a shredder and I need to make it a point to shred things as they come in, but seriously, what do I do with all those damn insurance explanations of benefits? Maybe I'll see if they have a paperless option... THAT alone would cut down about 50% of the mail that comes into our house. With two insurance companies, there are a LOT of EOBs.

Originally Posted by tomi

I don't mean to sound flippant about it all......... its just dang hard when you're raising a family. But there are small things you can do on a daily basis that helps keep your world a little more managable and tidy. You just have to get serious about it and be dedicated to it - then it will become just a normal part of life.

Agreed...

Originally Posted by tomi

Baby steps. Pick ONE thing and make it your mission. Say the laundry -- NO MORE piling the laundry onto the table - it gets washed and put away the same day. Or whatever........

Easier said than done... lol However, I have folded two loads of laundry today - mine and Brad's. Mine is put away. Brad's is placed inconveniently on the bathroom counter. He will be asked to put it away before bed so I can have the basket back. He's a good one at just putting the basket in the closet and living out of the basket.

I'm off to finish sorting the kids' clothes. 1st load of towels is done drying too... time to fold them (5 minutes tops) and reload the dryer with towel load #2.

I took a pic of my table pre-folding and plan to take another pic of it cleared and free of all clothes. I'll share my progress.

Like mother, like daughter.. I watched my mom come home from the office at 5pm, start dinner, start load/s of clothes, help with homework, "pick up" around the house, serve dinner while discussing everyone's day, do dishes, immediately fold clothes after drying, usually by that time in den while watching evening news, begin preparing clothes for next day for everyone, ironing, baths for everyone, a little tv while making her to-do lists, bed at 11pm, up at 6am to start all over again. I still marvel at how she did that every single weekday/night. Weekends were heavy duty cleaning, shopping, picnics/boating, movies, flower garden, church. She was and still is the most organized person I've ever known.

I never had kids and just work part time, but let that dryer buzzer go off and I'm like a robot getting those clothes out, sitting down in my chair, fold and put back in basket. I fold everything, DH's dress shirts and pants go to cleaners, I rarely iron, I find dryer sheets help with no wrinkles and getting them out/folding quickly is important.

Everything but jeans, sweaters, tanks, PJs,and underthings is hung here. The only reason I don't hang tanks is the "sweater file" thingy I have that hangs from the closet rack has room for both those and all my sweaters throughout the year. I can see everything I have (aside from PJs, underthings, and workout clothes) without rooting around. Even my jeans have a permanent home on the floor of my closet.
Then again, I'm also the freak with the uberorganized closet: organized in order: color (black, grey, white, rainbow scheme); then broken out by sleeve length (tank, short sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, long sleeve), then broken up by light to dark. Same goes for my pants, sweaters, and tanks. Even my jeans are stacked from darkest to lightest.

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, steak in one hand, chocolate in the other, yelling "Holy F***, What a Ride!"
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For me, it's easier in the morning. Go over to this color, grab something weather appropriate, throw it on.

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, steak in one hand, chocolate in the other, yelling "Holy F***, What a Ride!"
My Latest Journal

Hey Jenn, Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. I am starting a W30 today. Just wanted to let you know.

Hi Paula. I have one more Thanksgiving meal to tend to - and from the sounds of it, it will be far from paleo... *sigh* After that, I plan to hook up a Whole27, lasting until my first Christmas meal, which will likely also be far from paleo.

Daughter is doing well. I stayed home with her again on Wednesday. Her fever broke midday so we went and got some stuff for Thanksgiving dinner and then had a little emergency with my car - mechanic who was replacing our tires discovered a crack in one of my rims. Had to go to a used car parts store to buy a "new" rim, then drive back to the mechanic's shop to give him the new rim so he could finish our job.

Learned my neurosurgery student cousin-in-law is Paleo and has been talking it up to the in-laws (read: MIL with fibro) talking about how great it is for us, how healthy it is and how if we all continue on our current course with our current manufactured food options, we'll all end up with diabetes. Can't wait to sit down with her tomorrow at our non-paleo dinner. Brad was telling me this and we got on the discussion of carbs and how excess carbs turn to fat and aid in the uncontrolled growth of cells - including cancer cells, and how Alzheimer's is now being tagged as a Type III Diabetes. He started asking questions about certain carby foods - veggies, milk, etc. Then we got on the topic of taking dairy away from Brady for 2 weeks to see if there's a difference in his behavior. This whole cousin talking paleo thing is just verifying with everyone that I'm not nuts and I'm not killing myself by eating bacon. And with the way Brad is talking, he's getting closer and closer to cleaning it up...

Ordered a few more things from Amazon so Tash and Naiad can be expecting more dollars in their Amazon referral accounts. Speaking of Christmas shopping... I went "Gray Thursday" shopping. I spent $45... on stuff I could have bought any time of the week... but it was fun helping everyone else score their deals.

Oh, and I ate McDonald's twice this weekend. A McRib each time. Yes, I know... don't judge. I'm only telling you this to tell you all that since that first McRib, my right knee, left hip and left foot have been bothering me - and the area of my sacroilliac joint. Whole27 starting Sunday should help to clear all that up. Quickly I hope.